Spiritual Life & Disciplines

Part 3 – The Enemy of a Believer’s Spiritual Life

The flesh is the enemy

• The flesh is the inward principle of sin which is not eradicated in the believer

• Even Satan works on the flesh, not apart from it

The flesh is the enemy

• The flesh:• Is hostile to God (Rom. 8:7, cf. 1:21-32)• Is the source of sinful desires (Gal. 5:16, 24)• Leads to sinful deeds (Gal. 5:19-21)• Is at war with the work of the Spirit (Gal. 5:17)

What the flesh hates is God, so it resists anything that smacks of God – especially communion with him – Kris Lungaard, The Enemy Within (46)

7 strategies of the flesh

• The flesh knows how to eat an elephant – Indwelling sin takes advantage of our natural laziness and negligence in spiritual things, enticing us to lay aside spiritual duties one by one

• The flesh dresses us up in tuxedos and evening gowns – If we insist on worshipping God, the flesh will make our religion into a formal affair, so that it has no power. The flesh will let us go through the external motions of spiritual duties, without an fear or reverence for God

7 strategies of the flesh

• The flesh sends us down rabbit trails – The flesh wants to sidetrack us from the simplicity of the gospel… it steers us toward a… substitute for passion for [Christ]

• The flesh turns sin into a cuddly pet – Cuddly pets are sins that we domesticate and harbor in our hearts. We think of them as either too small or too great to take to God. Or we just plain get too attached to them to let go. [Like Augustine prayed before his conversion], “Lord, give me purity – but not yet.” Unrepented and cherished sins douses the fire of our first love.

7 strategies of the flesh

• The flesh pumps up our heads and shrivels our hearts – When the flesh gets a person to the point that he can sit under the teaching of the Word, and even delight in it for its intellectual beauty, yet not be changed, he has snuffed out the wick of his first love

• The flesh gets us to do our own thing – The wisdom of the flesh is to trust in self (the flesh). Independence is the opposite of faith and love.

7 strategies of the flesh

• The flesh is a cat that gets our tongue – The greatest [tactic of the flesh] is the neglect of private communion with God. The person who calls himself a Christian, who says he loves God, yet does not seek his company and delight in it, can’t be a true lover of God. His own flesh has deceived him. If he doesn’t daily give his heart to God and receive God’s heart in return, if he doesn’t daily renew his hatred of his own sin and his delight in God’s mercy, he has no relationship with God.

The flesh must be fought by the Spirit• The Spirit brings conviction of sin of sin so

that believers are motivated to turn from sin and repent (John 16:8, 1 Thes. 1:5)

• The Spirit enables and empowers believers to change and grow in righteousness (Gal. 5:16, 25)

The flesh must be fought by the Spirit• The Spirit leads and guides believers so that

they produce spiritual fruit (Gal. 5:22-23)

• The Spirit works through the Word of God to bring victory over the flesh (Gal. 5:16-25, Rom. 8:5-14)